


status quo (lapse) status quo

by FeoplePeel



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Multi, Post-Season/Series 02, Pre-Relationship, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 14:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12583864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeoplePeel/pseuds/FeoplePeel
Summary: Roommate Wanted: Great hair, good with kids and moms, skilled with a bat.Ex-boyfriend of my girlfriend, please apply.Or: In the aftermath of a second world-ending (or at least Hawkins-ending) event, the trio of teens desperately attempts to redefine their state of affairs.





	status quo (lapse) status quo

Nancy finds Steve in the public library.

“Hey, King Steve.”

He raises a startled gaze to meet hers. “You're the only one who still calls me that,” he snorts.

"I don't, really," she leans against the table, looking around the place, near empty on a Sunday afternoon. “What are you doing here?”

“I was clearing up a misunderstanding,” he looks up, again, at her silence. “Dustin likes to check out books under my name."

“That sounds like him,” she laughs, pulls out the chair across from him.

“Turns out some of these are pretty good,” he flips through a few pages of the small, red novel he's currently engrossed in. “What about you?” He takes his own look around the room. “Not to come down too hard on your new boyfriend but it's still the weekend.”

“ _Haha_ ,” she shifts in her seat, a little uncomfortable now that Steve's mentioned Jonathan first. The two of them seem to have no trouble saying one another's name, so what's her issue? “Its family movie night.”

“And you didn't get an invite?” Steve smiles into his book.

“No I did, I just…,”

“Didn't want to intrude on Joyce and Hop’s baby steps as a couple, no I get it,” he laughs at her furrowed brow. “El’s been keeping me posted.”

“I heard you're thinking of joining the force.”

“Well, Hopper doesn't have anyone really in the know and it's gotta be better than working for my dad.” There were a few tight lines around the corners of Steve's mouth. Nancy didn't blame him, his dad could be a piece of work.

“Totally,” she grins. “I think you’ll be great. Everyone thinks so.”

She had been alone with Steve four times since they fought a month ago; once during the attack, once after, when she congratulated him post game victory a week ago, and now. Each interaction led to this same silence--more strained than familiar--and a prickling worry that she had misspoke somewhere.   

But she’s fooling herself. She remembers where she misspoke.

“Listen, Steve,” she takes a deep breath to begin. “I know I--"

Steve closes the book in front of him, loud enough to startle her. “Sorry, I gotta go. Babysitting.”

“El’s with Hop,” Nancy purses her lips, partially annoyed, mostly confused.

“Max,” Steve shoves the book into his bag. “Like to hit the arcade before Billy gets there.”

“Why do you keep doing that?”

He stands and pushes in his chair, eyes on the door. “Because Billy’s an asshole, and as much as Max likes to think she can take care of herself, she's just a kid.”

“No,” she stands along with him, following. “Why do you keep cutting me off?”

“Nance--” Steve stops, holds up a hand, then turns back to continue walking. “Nancy, I'm just busy.”

“You do it every time we're alone. I'm trying to apologize and I feel like…,” she feels her chest tighten. “You don't want me to.”

Steve is silent, has stopped walking just short of the door. Nancy is thanking every deity she can remember that it's so empty today.

“Why wouldn't you want me to?”

“I don't want to have to say it okay?” he practically snaps out.

“Say what, Steve?”

“We're _not_ okay. This,” he motions between the space between them. “This isn't okay right now.”

“I'm sorry,” she says. It's all she can think to say.

“I want it to be okay,” he smiles that tight smile again and Nancy realizes it may not have been about his father at all. “It's not like you're dating some douchebag. Jonathan’s not a bad guy.”

He says it as a statement but his brow raises in question and Nancy finds herself shaking her head. “No, not bad at all,” she feels stupid for tearing up but whatever Steve was running on seems to drain from him at the sight of it.  

“We're going to keep seeing each other, whatever I have to say about it, but can you just…”

“I'll give you some space,” she says, even going so far as to take a conscious step back. “I am sorry, Steve.”

* * *

Jonathan shows up at Steve's game a week after what Steve refers to as The Apology Apocalypse. Jonathan at a sporting event by itself isn't rare. Sometimes he volunteers to take photos for the school paper. The odd thing, this time, is he stays until the end. More odd still that he’s clearly waiting for Steve by the bleachers.

“You wanna tell your boyfriend to stop staring at us, Harrington?” Billy may be leaving Steve alone for the most part, but verbal assaults are always on the table. A few teammates chuckle as soon as Steve turns. Someone says,  _You didn't hear, he's dating Wheeler now_ , too loud for it to have been anything but on purpose.

So Steve’s a little on edge by the time he comes toe-to-toe with his…Byers. He isn't sure if he's going to get the _don't touch my girlfriend_ speech or a general _she's mine now_. Neither seem to suit Jonathan, if he's honest with himself, and the look on the other boy’s face--standoffish and uncomfortable as ever--give nothing away. Really it isn't surprising when neither happens.

“You're giving Dustin driving lessons?”

“Is that a problem?” Steve says, sounding too defensive. He coughs. “Sorry, the game,” he motions over his shoulder. “Still a little amped. Yeah, Max too when she _deigns_ to think I have anything to teach her.”

“Would you mind if Will joined you guys one day?”

All of the tenseness in Steve immediately uncoils. The two of them managed to exchange bare pleasantries for the year Steve and Nancy dated. Of course Jonathan would only ever wade through a conversation with him for Will. “Yeah, of course.”

“Thanks, man,” Jonathan nods, grinning a little, and turns to leave. “I’ve taught him the basics.”

“Something wrong?” Steve calls out, internally cursing his curiosity (and, okay, there’s a little bit of care in there--those kids have him strung out and played like a fiddle).

“Just a hunch. Older brother instincts,” Jonathan stops, speaking louder from a few feet away and squinting into the sun behind Steve. “I think he’s finding ways to dodge time with his friends.”

“Sounds like you,” Steve huffs out before he can help it. To his surprise, Jonathan laughs.

“No, I didn’t have friends to dodge. Makes a difference,” he holds a hand over his eyes to help block the glare. “You're staying in Hawkins after you graduate, right?”

“Yeah,” Steve feels a little off-kilter at the question. “Nancy tell you?”

Jonathan nods. “Is that a problem?” Steve’s words from earlier, flat, less defensive. Steve wonders if it’s on purpose.

“Why would it be?”

“She’s worried about you, you know?” He drops his hand. It’s more unsettling that Jonathan’s staring directly at him when he says it, even if the other boy can’t see anything. “She won’t say it but--”

“You just know she is in the way she doesn’t talk about certain things,” Steve knows it comes out flat. Refuses to add the verbal taunt, _It’s how she used to talk about you_. He’s better than that. He _has_ to be.

Somehow, he thinks Jonathan hears it anyway.

“You need me to get lost too?”

“No offense, Byers, but I don’t think I’d notice if you did.”

“All right,” Jonathan goes back to covering his eyes.

“If she’s worried, really worried not just...guilty, tell her to call me. Okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Steve turns before Jonathan answers but stops at the sound of his name.

“ _What_ , Jonathan?”

“Good game.”

"Oh, like you'd know."

* * *

“Are you stalking me now, Byers?”

Jonathan nearly jostles the drink from his tray at the sound of the voice by his elbow. He’s gotten used to having Steve around over the past month, as Nancy slowly works through the mechanics of their friendship. He was an ex, sure, that was easy enough...but the three of them had saved Hawkins together, twice now. Arguably he had saved her brother, a bond Jonathan understood all too well.

They were...friends. Friends with numerous side roads and a fair few caveats, but at their basest definition, _friends_.

“I feel like I can’t eat a burger without bumping into you,” Steve tears into said burger with zeal.

“Well you came to eat where I work, so…,”

Steve looks around with a frown. “ _No_ , you work at the one by Salisbury. Will _said_.”

“I put in a transfer, this one is closer to the house.”

“Jonathan, Hawkins is three miles wide, _everywhere_ is close to your house,” Steve pulls a distasteful expression. “Sit down, people are staring. Or don’t sit, I don’t care.”

“Asshole,” Jonathan sits, his tray hitting just hard enough to inconvenience Steve. He may not notice the splashed ketchup until later. “I do need to talk to you.”

“Shoot.”

“How are you?”

“...good?” Steve finally looks up from his burger. He looks like he's concerned Jonathan might be going crazy.

 _Just you wait_ , Jonathan thinks.

“Uh, how are you?” Steve continues when the silence stretches. Jonathan leans his head over his food and scratches his neck. “That bad?”

“No, just...small talk.”

“You started it. Beats me why.”

“This is going to be…,” Jonathan squares his jaw and raises his head. “I know I’m probably the worst person to ask but I really don't have anyone else.”

Steve places the last few bites of his burger on the table, immediately alert. “Will? Joyce? Oh God, did something happen to Nancy?”

“What?” Jonathan's mind races, following name after name but making little sense of Steve's words.

“Just tell me what's wrong, man! I can take it!” Steve looks like he can not, in fact, take it.

“I...need a roommate.”

Steve falls back in his seat. Jonathan hadn’t realized he’d been leaning forward until that moment. “What?”

“A roommate. I’m thinking one of those rentals on Highland. In a few months maybe?”

“I don't know…,” Steve says in a tone that screams to Jonathan, _How are you this stupid?_

Jonathan presses his thumbs against his eyelids. “Trust me, I know. But...it’s been pointed out to me that I don't really have a lot of friends.”

Steve crosses his arms on the table. “Weirdly neither do I. No wonder we all end up dating the same people.”

“So…?” Jonathan raises a brow.

“I’ll think about it,” Steve acquiesces, balling up his wrapper. “I graduate in four months so…,” he grimaces. “I’ll _think_ about it.”

Which was more than Jonathan was hoping for, honestly.

* * *

Steve spends two nights thinking about it, _really_ thinking about it.

He even makes a list.

**PROS:**

  * Affordable without Padre
  * Nancy (self-explanatory)
  * Jonathan is quiet
  * Jonathan knows how to cook
  * I can make fun of the things Jonathan likes



**CONS:**

  * Nancy
  * Nancy and Jonathan together
  * Jonathan can be TOO quiet
  * Jonathan will definitely make fun of everything I like



There are a few he adds and crosses off, but no matter how he pads it, it comes down to these. And, in the end, five is a larger number than four. He finds Jonathan exiting Chemistry, Nancy beside him, smile as brilliant as always.

“If we get a place, we’ll need some ground rules,” Steve starts in lieu of hello, shifts his gaze to include Nancy, who only smiles wider. “ _All_ of us.”

* * *

_Four Months Later_

The rental they picked on Highland isn't fancy. It's painted a light yellow, chipping everywhere, and smaller than anything Steve's ever thought he'd have to live in, even when he imagined marrying Nancy and buying their first home together. Thinking about it now, it stings a little less wondering what would have happened had he continued down that road, with her unresolved feelings and his own unrealistic idea of the future. A boring job, a safe marriage, and only each other for company...he stops thinking about it. It stings a little less but that doesn't mean it doesn't sting  _at all_.

Jonathan's irritated voice from the front door is a helpful distraction. "Nancy, whoa, whoa! Let me carry that please!"

"I can handle it."

"I know you can, but can you handle something _not_ twice your size and _not_ carrying my favorite records?"

Steve backs into his room with a snort, begins unpacking his own things, setting his uniform on the bed, just in case he gets a call.

He doesn't know how long he's bent over boxes, but his head snaps up at the sound of two knocks. Nancy's leaning against the door frame, familiar, he thinks.

"Hey, I think we're all too tired to cook. You want in on a pizza?"

"Sounds good to me," he goes back to unpacking and listens to her quiet footfalls against the plush carpet. She whistles low and he turns again. She's holding up the uniform.

"Would you look at that?" she giggles. "Steve Harrington, defender of justice, protector of the weak."

"Haha," Steve hopes his glare is as effective as it looks when he practices in the mirror these days. Wrangling three children for driving lessons, he needs the best  _no nonsense_ look he can get and the ones he had just weren't cutting it.

"I mean it," Nancy holds out the badge to him and he takes it, swiping it thumb across the  _Hawkins_. "It suits you. It's what you _do_."

Steve swallows, places the badge on the bedside table. "Thanks, Nance."

"Hey, Steve," she lays the uniform back on the bed. "We okay?"

Steve thinks about it, remembers her name, a pro and a con. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah, we're okay."

"I'll go tell Jonathan to order that pizza," she turns to wipe at her eyes. "No mushroom, right?"

"Extra chicken!" Steve shouts after her, hands on his hips. He looks around the room, the unpacked boxes, his new police badge, and softer says, "We're okay."

**Author's Note:**

> Me: :has 4 WIP I should be posting:  
> Me: :writes 2k of this nonsense instead:
> 
> You know I live for even the _idea_ of this domestic nonsense. I love it! Sorry it only builds the blocks towards the OT3, maybe I'll add more to this universe at a later date, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
